Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 12

Chatra–Upānah Dāna: Origin Narrative

Jamadagni–Reṇukā–Sūrya Saṃvāda

Devanagari script

पुरा वरान्‌ प्रत्यवरान्‌ गरीयसो यावन्नरा नावमंस्यन्ति सर्वे तमोत्तरं यावदिदं न वर्तते तावद्‌ व्रजामि परलोकं॑ चिराय

Transliteration

purā varān pratyavarān garīyaso yāvan narā nāvamasyanti sarve tamottaraṃ yāvad idaṃ na vartate tāvad vrajāmi paralokaṃ cirāya |

Translation

毗湿摩说道：“在世人不再敬重真正伟大之人、反而将其轻贱如同卑下者之前；在此世被无明所生的黑暗所淹没之前——我将久别尘寰，前往他界。”

Word by Word

• {'purā': 'formerly

• in earlier times', 'varān': 'the excellent

• the worthy (acc. pl.)', 'pratyavarān': 'the inferior

• the lesser (acc. pl.)', 'garīyasaḥ': 'the weightier/greater ones

• the eminent (nom. pl.)', 'yāvat': 'as long as

• until', 'narāḥ': 'men

• people', 'na': 'not', 'avamasyanti': 'disrespect

• dishonor (3rd pl.)', 'sarve': 'all', 'tamaḥ': 'darkness

• ignorance', 'uttaram': 'greater

• predominant', 'idam': 'this (world/condition)', 'na vartate': 'does not prevail

• does not occur', 'tāvat': 'until then

• before that', 'vrajāmi': 'I go

• I depart', 'paralokam': 'the other world

• the hereafter', 'cirāya': 'for a long time

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma
• paraloka (the other world)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

A society collapses ethically when it stops honoring genuine excellence and virtue; the rise of ignorance (tamas) is a sign of dharma’s decline. The verse urges reverence for the truly great and vigilance against moral and intellectual darkness.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhishma, speaking in the Anushasana Parva, expresses his resolve to depart to the next world before an age arrives in which people contemptuously treat the eminent as though they were inferior and ignorance becomes dominant in the world.